Pregame thoughts – Seattle

• Seattle, frankly, is not good. They do have a veteran QB in Hasselbeck who has been decent in his past, but is not that good now. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he lasts maybe 1 more season in Seattle, if that. I would wager they will be trading for a QB or drafting one in the next year. But Hasselbeck’s lack of production hasn’t totally been his fault this year – in fact some would argue it is mostly the fault of a banged up O-Line. If I’m not mistaken they’ve gone through at least 3 starting left tackles alone this year. Their line is so bad that break-out 2008 rookie TE John Carlson has been relegated to a role as essentially another O-lineman to help in protection and it still doesn’t work – and in the process his receiving talents are being wasted. It was only last week that he finally got some attention, but of course, they were already getting crushed by Tampa in Seattle.
• Following up on the previous point, in the first half especially, Dom Capers should blitz the ____ out of Hasselbeck. We should EXPECT to force 3+ turnovers in this game. Hasselbeck has thrown several picks this year and the team fumbles too.
• TJ Housh is a solid WR, but has not had that great of a year. He is not a danger after catching the ball despite his insistence that he is. He also has proven to be a tool this year by being unnecessarily outspoken at times.
• Justin Forsett is a good RB. How Jim Mora justifies continuing to start Julius Jones is beyond me. He is slow, has no juke moves, and is injury prone. Forsett, on the other hand, has done well with his opportunities. We need to especially keep an eye on Forsett catching passes out of the backfield.
• Offensively, we should be able to run over these guys and throw past them. The Seattle D just isn’t that good. Grant will continue his late season run and I’d be surprised if Rodgers doesn’t throw for 3+ TDs.
• A quiet key to this one may be special teams. We don’t want to give them a short field or a TD on a return or something because those are the kinds of things bad teams can pull off to keep games close.
• I hate to be so confident like this – especially when Jim Mora’s last team marched into Lambeau facing a Packers’ team that historically had never lost a playoff game at Lambeau, and beat the Packers soundly (Mike Vick, Falcons). But something just tells me that this will end up being what I’m going to start calling a “formality” game – a game that is on the schedule that has to be played, but probably doesn’t need to be played because the odds of the underdog winning are ridiculous – kind of like playing the Washington Generals.
• I’m really looking forward to a dominant defensive performance. I think as much as the defense tries to comfort itself with the thought that the Pitt game was an aberration, they were embarrassed big-time. And they should have been. So, I can’t help but think our guys are going to come out charged up and ready to take care of business.
• Packers 45, Seattle 13.